In this stanza, the psalmist talks about how to fully understand the amazing Word that he described in the last stanza.  In v. 97-99, he talks about meditating on the Word.  Meditating on the Word all day long helps him to be wiser than his enemies and have more insight than his teachers.  Meditating on God’s Word is a path to full understanding of what God wants to tell us through his Word. Next, in v. 100-102, he talks about obedience and how it leads to more understanding than the elders, and that obedience leads to a desire to keep (more…)

After closing the first half of the psalm with a prayer stanza, the psalmist begins the second half with thoughts about what God’s Word is and what it does.  To start the psalm’s first half, he used the first three verses to talk about those who follow God’s Word – those blessed by walking according to the law and keeping the statutes.  He then talked about what followers do – understand obedience and promise to praise God and obey His Word.  In the second half, the first three verses  (v. 89-91) talk about God’s Word, then uses the rest of (more…)

Over the last few stanzas, the psalmist has expressed his feelings about God and the Word:  Zayin (v. 49-56) talked about comfort God provides through remembering His laws, Heth (v. 57-64) talks about security by walking in God’s Word and Teth (v. 65-72) mentions how God teaches us in times of persecution when we obey his precepts.  In Yodh, the psalmist provides a bit of a summary, with stanzas in an unusual structure. The verses of Yodh form what the NIV Study Bible calls a “concentric structure”, with similarity of verses in pairs from beginning to end: 73/80:  these verses (more…)

After talking about the comfort and protection that God’s Word brings, the psalmist explores how God delivered him from being afflicted – he mentions how he was afflicted before he went astray (v. 67) but that by obeying God he realized God’s goodness. He realizes it was good to be afflicted (v. 71) because it helped him to learn God’s decrees. Without God’s Word we often can feel the weight of problems and feel afflicted – like somehow God is causing us to have hardships.  But turning to God’s Word shows us the goodness of God, that he is looking (more…)

After discussing remembering and comfort in God’s Word, the psalmist talks about security he finds in the Word and it’s connection to obedience.  He talks about promising to obey and not hastening to obey, and about how the Lord is his portion (what he is given to meet his needs), and that God protects him from straying in his ways, being bound by the wicked and through his friendships. By walking in obedience, we are protected from just doing what we have learned or decide we want to meet our needs.  When we have the attitude of “the Lord is (more…)

The psalmist mentioned feeling weary in stanza Daleth, then makes his requests of God in He and commitments to God in Waw.  Now in Zayin, he talks about how God’s Word is his comfort, using the word twice in the passage.  He mentions that the promises from God give him hope, preserves his life and helps him find comfort. He also calls God to remember him, and that he remembers the “ancient laws” and the name of the Lord.  Both the repeating of the words “comfort” and “remember” seem significant to the psalmist. There is a connection between remembering and (more…)

After making his requests from God in the last stanza, the psalmist talks about how his desire to obey God’s Word will direct his life.  First, he can stand up and answer those who oppose him in his love of the Word, and he will focus on speaking only “your word of truth”. He then makes three commitments to how he will live for God’s Word: “I will always obey your law, for ever and ever.” – he commits to a life of obedience to the Word, and for it to have no end. “I will walk about in freedom, (more…)